284 



Notices of Books. 



[June, 



Considerable interest was shown in the Ministry's exhibit at 

 the last National Utility Poultry Society's Show, of a model 

 Plans for a house for two goats and a fodder store com- 

 Goat House bined. The model was designed to illus- 

 trate how goats could be housed under the 

 most hygienic conditions with due consideration to economy of 

 space and material. Detailed plans of the model have now been 

 prepared and copies may be obtained from the Offices of the 

 Ministry, 10 Whitehall Place, S.W.I, price 3d. post free. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Crops and Tillage.— (J. C. Newsham, Principal of the Monmouthshire 

 Agricultural Institution, Usk ; pp. 182 ; 6s. net : Methuen & Co., Ltd., 

 London.) This is a textbook which should attract a wide range of readers. 

 It is written in a manner which must appeal to the farmer, and particularly 

 to the farm student, yet it may also be described as a book for the University 

 student who, after reading extensively, desires to focus his knowledge of the 

 subjects coming within its title. In handling a scientific subject there is 

 always the problem of technical words, but the writer manages to make his 

 statements clear, without labouring to explain their evident truth when such 

 would involve a standard of scientific training beyond that of the readers for 

 whom the book is intended. The information is well knitted together, as, for 

 example, in the description of the development of rotations as now practised, 

 and the reader finds himself more and more interested as the subject matter 

 is unfolded. The writer's experience is wide and drawn from many districts, 

 and the book should prompt the farmer to try methods of cultivation which 

 have proved successful elsewhere than in his immediate neighbourhood. 

 Points of practical interest to the farm student, such as occur for example in 

 threshing, stacking, sowing, rolling, in fact, in the most everyday operations, 

 are dealt with in a manner most likely to impress the memory. Being recently 

 written, the book embodies much of the experience, and many of the lessons 

 of war-time cultivation. The writer wisely introduces much information 

 which a farmer, from its very familiarity, often never thinks of explaining to 

 a pupil. The index is good, but is unfortunate that it is not fuller. Several 

 references are made to experiments, and to the works of agricultural writers, 

 but a brief list of books of reference would have been an advantage. The 

 pages on grassland and its problems are very good and give a well-balanced 

 summary of the writer's experience, incidentally, it may be noted, he urges the 

 value of liming rough pasture previous to the application of slag if the best 

 results are to be obtained. Perhaps more might have been said about weeds 

 without stepping beyond the title of the book. Several insect pests are 

 touched on, and some fungus diseases. On points like these a list of references 

 would have been useful and would not materially have increased the number 

 of pages. 



